Brazil has south-south cooperation with African countries.
There are not many media headlines on Brazil’s economic engagement in Africa, although there are numerous bigger mining and infrastructure projects and several decades of cooperation to be mentioned which are certain to gain importance in the context of south-south relations developed in the BRICS context. Cooperation with German companies may be interesting also against the background of increased interest in Africa stated recently by the Sub-Sahara Initiative of the Germany industry.
The Brazilian company with the longest history of engagement in Africa is its national oil company Petrobras, which has been active in Angola since 1979 and is involved in oil production. In Mozambique, Petrobras signed an agreement in 2006 regarding gas and oil exploration and the production of biofuels. The company is also involved in offshore oil production in Tanzania, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, and Libya.
Brazil’s construction giant, Noberto Odebrecht (rebranded as Novenor) is currently active in eight African countries. In Angola, the company began construction of the Capanda Dam in 1982, which was intended to generate 50 MW of electricity. Due to the Angolan civil war, construction work had to be suspended for a long time; in the meantime, the Lula da Silva administration has granted additional loans to Angola to complete the reservoir.
